Mage Gameplay Sucks

[BlazeXI]

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong I’m at the beginning of a new mage char and the slow magicka regen makes mage combat IMPOSSIBLE target looses like 5% of its health after 3 hits and I have no magicka anymore and it Regens super slow, any mods to make it more fun?

[A. Silvermane]

That's why I never play a pure mage, if I want to be a magically inclined character I play Spellsword.

[Duneman]

Pure Destruction Mages are an All-Or-Nothing affair.

You'll want to find and equip Fortify Destruction apparel as soon as possible; your goal is to get 90%+ reduction in cost of Destruction spells. You'll also want to get access to planters as soon as possible and grow potions with Fortify Destruction to improve the damage you deal: Glowing Mushrooms + Nightshade. If you want to add Fortify Health you can toss in some Wheat. If you want Resist Shock you can toss in Snowberries. For magicka recovery you'll want to grow Mora Tapinella and Red Mountain Flowers in your planters.

Spells get less efficient as you increase their tiers. As such, for ranged combat Firebolt is your best bet. Enemies can dodge it though, so you'll want to learn Dual-Casting and Impact. Once an enemy is staggered you can get two volleys off while they stagger. Then your third casting should be dual-cast again to repeat the stagger once they recover. Putting ranks in the Augment [Element] perk will improve which enemies get staggered.

Staves are also an option. The Staff of Chain Lightning is somewhat unique in that it has a built-in Impact effect. So it can help you lock down clustered groups of enemies. But even a basic Firebolt Staff will help you keep up in prolonged combat.

If you want to fight alongside companions you may want to eat the extra magicka cost and use Shock damage instead. Shock spells are hit-scan, so you don't have to worry as much about friendly fire. Also, consider getting Silent Casting from the Illusion tree if you want to use pre-battle buffs. The drop in magicka regen only occurs once an enemy grows suspicious of you. So with silent casting you'll be able to layer buffs with the usual out-of-combat regen.

[McShlisy]

Are you wearing mage gear that reduces cost and increase regen? Are you using high level spells when you don't have that much magicka or the perk to reduce that spell's level cost by half like adept destruction or apprentice destruction etc. You can also try leveling restoration to get the recovery perk that makes magicka regeneration increase by 25% at 1/2 and 50% at 2/2. Maybe don't dual cast either if it drains too much and instead pair up a staff with a 1h cast. Ordinator mod is really good for a staff/1h cast playthrough I'd check that out. Staff perks being in the enchanting skill tree (for ordinator).

[potestas]

or you could download a mod that increases the strength of magic as you level in some way. Magic doesnt scale well in the base game4

[Sairek Ceareste]

I never really liked how magic works in Skyrim. You run out too much in the early game and by late game you quite literally have infinite magicka, even if you never put a single level up into the attribute, because you can get so much regen by the time you finish the animation for one cast, you'll be back up to full again.

[LORD-ORION]

Elsweyr Fondue helps alot during the early levels too.
But pretty much your goal is to get enchant up to make 100% Destruction buff so spells are free.
Impact + Thunderbolt + 100% Destruction is OP

[Duneman]

Originally posted by LORD-ORION:

Elsweyr Fondue helps alot during the early levels too.

Ah, yeah, the +100 magicka is nice. If you have Anniversary Edition you can craft your own Eidar Cheese Wheels once you get access to Butter(Goldenhills Plantation generates all sorts of crafting materials for you, and can be used for cash crops as well). But generally be on the lookout for those and Ale. They can be 'free' if you help someone and find some laying around their home or business: items worth 30 gold or less are free to take as a 'friend'. Moon Sugar will be a bit rarer, and costly, but not too bad compared to purchasing generic potions.

[Bansheebutt]

Put the difficulty on adept- that's the only reason you'd do that little damage with an entire bar of resource.

The difficulty toggle is an atrocious system and anything higher than adept borks the cost/output of Magic.
The meme of magic in skyrim being "weak" is less that spells don't do enough damage and more about melee/ranged being overpowered and stamina being far more generous a resource. On adept, magic works fine.

[unboundlopez]

I can share a secret that I discovered that can help you make use of spells. Here is a short youtube clip. This also works for healing. Keep in mind I have 100 magic on legendary difficulty as a high level .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNLddhV9gzg

Here is another video. A bit longer, but it showcases how healing and the secret power attack :).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJlNJwsWXmo

[Cythal]

Sky UI is highly recommended for playing a mage.

" A true mage weaves numerous spells. A true mage knows they are frail. They hone their mind towards raising magicka only and using magic and crafting to fortify defences, keep a distance and remains elusive during battle.

They come prepared knowing the right spell to cast at the right moment in time. Watching their opponents' every move to ensure they are not surrounded."

In my opinion the base game UI limits the mage gameplay. A mages early life requires some pre-knowledge of opponents, or in a more roleplay perspective, reads tomes and books to know the strength and weaknesses of enemies before they are encountered in battle.

If you enjoy outsmarting your opponents from level 1 with the a selection of spells that are not only destruction spells then you will enjoy the mage playthrough. Sadly vanilla UI will limit this.

A scroll crafting mod, Ordinator, crafting soul gems using gems, and many other spell packages will enhance mage gameplay even further.

[xaocfera]

On the topic of "weak magician", I remembered the battle episode. I summoned a Daedra warrior with a fiery two-handed sword. In fact, he is dangerous. Can simply kill humanoids by cutting off their heads with one blow. But the magician with whom I was fighting gave him only one charge of magic, and this Daedra instantly went back to Oblivion.
I think playing the role of a “pure magician” is a difficult challenge. Especially against a group of vampires who are the most difficult opponents in this game. This is Bezesda's plan. Troll both the Nords and the dragons. Make vampires the most dangerous enemy.
In Baldurs Gate 2, vampires were also dangerous. It wasn't just your Health that was sucked out. Their strike took away your Player Levels. And forever.
The pure warrior was powerless against them. Only magic, or a werewolf, or a battle priest.

[alexander_dougherty]

There are plenty of mods that fix the magic problems.
For some reason Bethesda decided that the player would get a lower rate of magicka regen in combat, BUT only the player, NPC mages don't get this debuff..... If that doesn't make you want to slap the programmers nothing will.

You can search for threads that address this issue, but common mods include Ordinator, Apocalypse, odin, Arcanum, and Phenderix, just check the ones you choose are compatible.

[Włodzimierz Szaranowicz]

Magic in Skyrim sucks giant ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ balls, it's not just you.

[Rez Elwin]

I would say magic sucks, it's juts inferior to about any other play-style.

@OP: Do you have AE? There is a set of spells that are far better than anything you can get in Vanilla, even better than the master spells. There is a chest in "Hob's Fall Cave" that has them all, there are 4 mains ones you want, they all start with "Elemental" The "Unbound" spells are also very good.

The Elemental spells do far more damage and cost far less magicka to cast, I played through the College quest-line on my mage character, with no armor, no weapons, no staffs, pure magic the whole way through because of how broken those spells are. That character is currently over level 50, has Maxed our every magic school and I still have no weapon or armor skills.

[Anvos]

Mage and Mage Hybrid builds are poorly balanced in Skyrim, since you pretty much need the Fortify Enchantments on your armor/clothes, along with the stagger on dual cast to be effective, especially on higher difficulties. Then add in that Warriors and Archer/Rogues are able to use pseudo magic thanks to shouts. Plus the regen formula is highly punishing at lower levels, meanwhile even using lightning magic enemy mages can cast for days.

Also doesn't help that Illusion is almost a waste of a tree since its tied to level, and alteration doesn't mean much when blacksmithing can already hit the armor cap.